Ch. XL FRANKLIN & RICHARDSON'S SECOND JOURNEY. 433 



given them an advance of ten miles. Boulders 

 of greenstone, sandstone and limestone were found 

 near the mouth of this river, deeply seated in the 

 gravel of the beach. 



On the 27th of July they came to the mouth of 

 a wide river, which, proceeding from the " British 

 range of mountains," " and being," says Franklin, 

 " the most westerly river in the British dominions 

 on this coast, and near the line of demarcation 

 between Great Britain and Russia, I named it the 

 Clarence, in honour of His Royal Highness the 

 Lord High Admiral." From hence, fogs, and long- 

 continued gales, rain, and heavy pieces of drift ice 

 continued to interrupt their progress till the 4th 

 August, when they fell in with a party of trading 

 and peaceable Esquimaux, from whom they learned 

 that the coast before them was similar to that alono* 

 which they had been travelling. They were now 

 in lat. 70° 5', long. 143° 55'. For some time past 

 they had pulled the boats outside, or to seaward of 

 the continued reef of rocks and gravel, about two 

 miles, and a little farther on found the water very 

 shallow, and perfectly fresh. To another large river 

 they gave the name of Canning, opposite to which, 

 at three miles from the shore, the water was still 

 fresh. This river was of course running through 

 the Russian dominions. 



The farther they advanced westerly the more 

 dense the fogs became ; not a day elapsed in which 



2 F 



